Friday, October 25, 2013

Karen Kwiatkowski: A look at the Virginia GOP ticket

by Karen Kwiatkowski

When I ran in the Republican primary of 2012, seeking to unseat long-term Sixth District Congressman Bob Goodlatte, I met a lot of people who liked my message of small government and liberty. I was also called a lot of different names by people who thought I should just respect my elders, and shut up.

One of those names was “libertarian!” When my opponent and his supporters called me libertarian, they didn’t realize they’d just picked a fight with a pig. We were both going to get muddy, but the pig was sure to love every minute of it. You see, I’m very proud to be called a passionate lover of liberty, and a proponent of limited government. I am honored to be seen as a defender of my neighbor’s freedom to live their lives and run their businesses as they see fit, so long as they accord the same right to me, and don’t force me to subsidize their choices.

We have another election on Nov. 4, and we’ll be voting for local representatives on school boards and county councils, as well as for state governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

I’m on record as supporting Ken Cuccinelli, E.W. Jackson, and Mark Obenshain. As the president of the Republican Women in Shenandoah County, this isn’t news, but I want to share my libertarian perspective on these candidates, and why I particularly like this ticket this year.

AG Ken Cuccinelli fights federal overreach, and he does so effectively. That alone would be enough for me to cast my vote for him. He fought Obamacare on the grounds that forcing everyone to buy health insurance is not the proper role of the federal government. On this Ninth and 10th Amendment-derived principle, he will fight similar excess in federal educational policy that hurts our children and our schools, federal farm policy that harms Virginia farmers, federal energy policy that devastates Virginia workers, consumers and landowners, and a federal environmental regulatory machine that harms Virginians, and every other species that reside here. He will fight federal social policy and federal tax policy that harms Virginia families.

I am a woman who had a 20-year career in the USAF believing that I was fighting for the Constitution and liberty here at home. I trust Ken Cuccinelli to be true to these same principles, and in doing that, I believe his governorship will nurture and grow liberty in Virginia, for me and everyone else, from Southside to Fairfax and Chesapeake, and up and down the Shenandoah Valley. We definitely need more liberty in Virginia, where taxes are going up and where we currently have the lowest labor participation rate in thirty years. We certainly won’t get liberty or prosperity from the other side – they aren’t even asking for it, but shockingly, they are advocating even more interference in our lives from both federal and state levels.

I have heard that Ken Cuccinelli will attempt to regulate my life, control my choices for my family, and peek into my bedroom from Richmond. False claims like these indicate a real misunderstanding on the part of the McCauliffe campaign of what it is that drives Cuccinelli – and I believe what drives him is faith, family and the Constitution. Most people have never read the Bill of Rights, and so they don’t really understand our Creator-granted liberties, and the correct and limited role of government. But I know Ken does, and I find that comforting. When it comes to my choices, my personal life and my privacy, I’m far more worried about regulating, controlling and peeking by the former head of the DNC and his close ties with the massive surveillance state expanded and led by President Obama. I think I speak for many of the tens of thousand of small “l” libertarians in the state, and also for the nearly 4 million women in Virginia who rightfully believe they own their own lives and are well qualified to decide what’s best for their families without interference from Richmond.

I consider myself a friend of E.W. Jackson, and I know he will fight for the expansion of liberty in Virginia. The kinds of issues where EW as Lt Gov will be called upon to weigh in are hard to predict. What is easy is to predict is how he will decide. Does the decision at hand increase power of average Virginians rather than the power of the state? Will his vote promote more freedom for Virginians, or reduce it? It’s not hard to understand, and I know EW believes as I do in the fundamental and Creator-granted liberty that is the birthright of all Virginians, and men and women everywhere. He gets it.

I am supporting Mark Obenshain for Attorney General, for the same reasons. He understands that law exists ultimately to protect our freedom, not to reduce it.

Call me a simpleton, or naïve, but I always vote for liberty when I get a chance. The GOP ticket doesn’t always give us this chance. For example, I don’t vote for McCain-style warmongers, or establishment hacks who don’t understand and won’t fight for the Constitution, and that won’t change. But on Nov. 4, I am happy to report we have a GOP ticket in Virginia that will increase liberty and prosperity in our state. It’s a ticket I trust to keep the government out of my driveway, my barn, my kitchen, my backyard and my bedroom.

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The Virginia Liberty Alliance is a leaderless alliance of Virginia liberty lovers.

We are focused on the liberty message and not our own egos or political ambitions.We are for True Limited Constitutional Government that promotes individual Liberty.